Tuesday, January 16, 2007

It Followed Me Home. Can I Keep It?

So this weekend a friend and I went on a little road trip out of Chicago and finished up our intended errand earlier than expected. He suggested that as long as we were out, we might stop on the way home at an antiques mall we'd passed earlier. Indeed, I had no objection.

The antiques mall turned out to be more of a multi-dealer junk shop. You know the kind of thing–ugly Venetian glass ashtrays from the 50s, and cartoon lunch boxes from the 70s. I balk at seeing things I owned as a child under the banner of "antiques." It's not quite time for that yet.

We were on the way out, passing the very last stall, when some sort of alarm bell went off in my head. I turned around and, half buried behind country-kitsch tree ornaments and faux-colonial table lamps shaped like Betsy Ross french kissing Benedict Arnold, I spotted...a spinning wheel.

"I need to go look at that," I said.

I fully expected the wheel to be:

fake;

transformed into a lamp or planter;

missing half its vital organs;

ridiculously overpriced; or

all of the above.

I pulled it out from behind the hill of bric-a-brac and gave it a quick once-over, then a slower once-over. Drive wheel, check. Mother-of-all, maidens, flyer, check. Treadle, check. Tension screw, check. Legs, check. Distaff, check, aside from the topmost bar.

There had to be a catch. I swung the treadle, which had been tied back, into position and reconnected the footman to the crank. The wheel was unlubricated but still spun with surprising ease. The wheel itself was still perfectly true. I had no string to make a drive band, but the flyer, which had all its hooks but one, spun easily on the leather bearings.

The frame didn't even wobble. No sign of rot, no cracks, no sloppy repairs on the underside with nails or glue.

Was it a fake? If so, it was a very clever fake. The wood was old, fine-grained stock, and the table was rough-hewn on the underside. All the joins were authentic. The turnings were machine-lathed, but original. There were traces of the orignal red ochre paint on several of the turnings. It obviously had not been cobbled together from a random collection of incomplete wheels.

To my eyes, which I grant are not expert, it seemed to be an intact, nicely-preserved, Eastern European wheel from the last quarter of the 19th century. Or a well-nigh perfect reproduction of the same.

Gritting my teeth, I flipped over the red price ticket. Less than 100 dollars. Much less than 100 dollars.

My vision went all blurry. And then suddenly we were back in the car going home, and I owned two spinning wheels. Because having just one spinning wheel in my high-rise Chicago living room wasn't weird enough.

That night, I felt as though I'd taken in a healthy but neglected puppy off the street. The little thing lapped up half a bottle of lemon oil and quite a bit of wheel oil. When I first put on the drive band, it groaned a bit as the works began to rotate for possibly the first time in years. But I coaxed it, and offered more oil, and fiddled with the tension, moving very slowly. Within two hours, it was purring contentedly. The action was almost as smooth as my Ashford's.

I finally understood why my father got so much satisfaction from fixing cars and stereos. Only took me 35 years, Pop, but hats off to you for showing me the way.

It's missing only one vital part: the bobbin. However, I'm confident I can get a set made without much trouble or expense. I've got good, close-up photographs from similar wheels, I've worked through Alden Amos's detailed formulae for computing double-drive ratios, and my folks know people with lathes. I've already started making measured drawings.

That's great! I had a similar experience, though my limb was a bit skinnier, since I'm just learning how to spin on my LYS' wheel, and don't know that much about them, so had to choose from about 15 antiques without real knowledge of how they work. Question: Your driveshaft has an elongated hole where it meets the drivewheel - so does mine, and it seems (on mine) that hole is the result of wear, and now has too much play for the wheel to turn consistently in one direction or the other. Any thoughts on why this is happening? Have you spun anything with yours yet?

I'm actually answering a question you left on Jean's blog about circular needles. Addi makes a 12" needle in most sizes if you don't mind spending the money. I don't know whether anyone else still does although I have 25-30 year old plastic ones; probably Susan Bates or Boye.

I also have a solution to the problem of sock needles which you posted about sometime recently. Woolworks Ltd in Putnam, CT has a needle holder holds the needles with the work on them. Check out the Yarn Harlot on April 25, 2006 for pictures and description.

Excellent find! Yes, I agree with the healthy puppy analogy. I rescued an Anthony Cardarelle wheel a couple of years ago under similar circumstances (Cardarelle was one of the driving forces in the San Francisco Bay Area spinning community back in the 1950s).

Oh it's wonderful. I absolutely LOVE, and I do mean LOVE the color. and under a $100 at an "antique" mall. Yeah I'll use that word loosely. Now I have this STRONG urge to go antiquing. Too bad I have a 19 month old in my house. Cause I'd love to have an old wheel just a decor. I call it a very nice find a nd a steal.

Oh. Wow. What a find! There's a little parlour wheel at an antiques place near me, which the guy says he'll sell for $95 CDN, but it has been sitting outside under a tarp for goodness knows how long and is missing some bits and pieces. For the time being, that's where it will stay. So... congrats on yours!

Congratulations on your new wheel. It is exactly this type of story that keeps my crazy mind fantasizing that I will have a similar experience. Good luck with your bobbin adventure. The wheel is beautiful. You did a wonderful job restoring.

I dream of making little finds like that. Of course, that would involve actually going into an antique shop and having the patience to look around. Bravo. Next time Antiques Road Show comes to town, bring it in and find out what kind of steal you really got.

That is a seriously beautiful wheel, Franklin, and she does look to be in great condition. I love the painted decorations.

The only wheel I ever found in an "antiques mall" was quite a decent Canadian production wheel. But in order to pretty her up, they'd slopped tons of polyurethane (gag) on her to the point where nothing moved any more. So sad.

Your new/old wheel is a work of art! What a great find. I'd have bought it and I don't even spin. In fact, I've said I will never spin because it's an art that screams to me "Danger, DANGER! High addiction risk!". But Id have bought that for sure. Could you please take a close up of the rectangular piece in the middle that has some designs on it? Is it inlay? I love antique wood peices and have done some refinishing/restpration in my time, so I'm interested in the joins and details. Cheers!

A follow up to SueN. Juat word of warning-I had trouble with those DPN metal storage tubes- it shredded my sock! The workmanship was a bit shoddy too. However, it led me to develop my own DPN holders. www.lunastrixae.etsy.comI know someplace people sell wooden versions of the metal tube, but I never found a vendor.

That wheel is just fab. You should take the photo around at the next wool fest and see if you can get an ID.

You lucky man! Next time you are in Maine you must go to "Brass & Friends" in Hallowell. It is very odd, jam-packed (like you can maybe walk through a small path). But the proprieters are not very sociable. One time, my sister in law and I were just STANDING there and a pile of glass globes from a shelf about 15 feet up fell. SIX inches from SIL. One of the proprietors ran up from the basement and demanded "what did you do?". So, I don't give them my money, but they are surely worth a look. And, they have quite the display on the backside of the store along the river... who else do you know with a tonka truck trellis?

Ohhhhhhhh, Franklin - what a magnificent piece of serendipity! Congratulations, may you and your new baby be have a long and happy relationship. I second the rec for "The Care and Feeding" book - used to have it, and it was very thorough. My father who was a woodworker (and made Mom and I each a custom wheel) gave it the thumbs up. With a distaff attached, I'd definitely think it was a flax wheel. My other wheel has a distaff - it's a replica, but supposedly from the early half of the 20th century - and man, that sucker's fast. And almost impossible to spin other than super-fine on it. So watch out for speed when you get your new baby fully back into tip-top condition. I have to consciously remember to treadle really slowly if I don't want the fiber snatched out of my hands, even on a very light tension. If yours is like mine, it'll be great for sock yarn! Or, say, lovely line flax. ;]

Thanks for all the pix, and we really wouldn't mind seeing more. You done good.

Oh Franklin! Congratulations on so many levels!A)What a great find!B)Having there be no real "catch"!C)Getting such a good deal!D)Taking in the "wounded puppy"!E)Understanding "Dad". WOW! That was worth the whole thing in my eyes. lolF)Having "New baby" pics to show of something wonderful in your life.

Thanks for bringing joy to our lives. Sometimes you pull it out out reality like now, sometimes you pull it from the past. Sometimes you just pull it from the clouds. Thanks a million for the smiles. You don't know what you are truely worth.

You lucky dog you! I am oozing envy all over my clean shirt.I wanna try it!Makes me want to go on a fresh round of "find the spinning wheel, antique store hunting".But I doubt there is another one in this country as pretty as that. You did good.CongratsHolly

Seeing things you recognise in a junk/antique shop is nowhere near as bad as spotting them in a museum by the way. I'm referring to the Science Museum in London which contains all sorts of ephemera in the basement I remember from childhood.

Franklin, congrats on the new wheel. It reminds me very much of the little Lithuanian wheel I bought on eBay a couple years ago. I want to replace the leathers on mine so it will accommodate an Ashford flyer. My flyer and bobbin are not in great shape, and someone polyurethaned them into an inseparable unit. But with the right equipment, I think it will spin nicely some day. Best of luck with your treasure! Regards, Paula

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